Following the various recent announcements from U.S. President Donald Trump that he wants the country to withdraw from all areas of potential conflict in the Middle East – except Saudi Arabia, for the moment, at least – Russia continues to fill the power vacuum. In the centre of the Middle East – Iran and Iraq – it is aided by China, which is stealthily and relentlessly pursing its ‘One Belt, One Road’ project, and to which Iran and Iraq are irreplaceable transit points through which it can reach deep into Europe, as analysed in detail in my new book on the global oil market . Russia is happy to go it alone, however, putting all of the pieces in place prior to Trump’s official Middle East disengagement statements so that it has been perfectly positioned to take over since then. Perhaps no country acts as a better template of […]